Investigation of Soil Geochemical Background Values under Influence of Coal Mining Activities

In the soil investigation of historical legacy production enterprises in Xintai City, it is found that the heavy metal determination results at the contrast points are relatively higher than those in other cities. Therefore, combined with coal mining activities, the impact of this on the content and distribution of soil geochemical background values is studied. Comparative analysis of 54 items of soil geochemical background indicators in Xintai City with background and benchmark values in Shandong Province indicates that the contents of elements determined by geological conditions such as molybdenum, sodium oxide, thorium and others are higher than the background values in Shandong Province, while the contents of elements of required for plant growth such as total carbon, chlorine, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and others are lower than the average level of Shandong Province; The background values of elements such as organic carbon, total carbon, sulfur, mercury and others are higher than the benchmark values, among which the relatively high content of total carbon, sulfur, mercury, cadmium, and chlorine is mostly related to coal mining activities. Besides, the variation coefficients of elements such as boron, mercury, arsenic, strontium, and total carbon in the soil exceed 0.4, indicating that coal mining activities have a certain impact on elements such as total carbon, sulfur, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, chlorine and others in soil background values.